Canada Top cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver Legal since: July 2005 Number of married gay couples: 12,438 by October 2006 (including those married in provinces that adopted marriage equality earlier than the national law) Canada was both the first country in the Americas and the first outside Europe to nationally legalize same-sex marriage. Interestingly, though marriage is open to any couple regardless of their residency, a Canadian divorce can only be granted if one of the spouses has lived in Canada for a year.
Uruguay
Top city: Montevideo
Becomes law in: August 2013
Number of married gay couples: None yet
In August, Uruguay will become the second country in South America to usher in marriage equality. It was the first nation on the continent to sanction same-sex civil unions in 2008, and the first to allow gay couples to jointly adopt in 2009.
Photos via EnriqueMéndez & YouTube
Don't forget to share:
Thirsty for more?
Subscribe to our newsletter to indulge in daily entertainment news, cultural trends, and visual delights.
Comments are closed.
DaveO
Lags behind much of the world????? There are a lot more than 14 countries in the world. You need to get out more
alexoloughlin
Denmark introduced same-sex marriage on its second attempt to pass it. Failed on the first.
alterego1980
“Like Mexico, the U.S. now allows same-sex marriage in some states.” I would say, unlike Mexico, the US does not recognize same-sex marriage approved in individual states. Mexico leaves it up to the states but recognizes those marriages as legal. And the US still has DOMA (as of now anyway, and hopefully not after June, but we’ll see)
Randal Oulton
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is no longer Prime Minister of Iceland, I believe she’s retired now (as of start of May 2013 I think)
Flyguy from Canada
The law has been amended. Non Canadian residents can now also get a divorce
Ken
The law did not pass “both houses” of the New Zealand parliament, because they have a unicameral legislature. There is only one house.
Dan Allen
@Randal Oulton: You are correct, the new Icelandic prime minister is actually due to take office tomorrow.
Dan Allen
@Flyguy from Canada: There has been a bill introduced to amend the Canadian divorce situation, but it hasn’t yet passed: http://shulman.ca/same-sex/divorce-in-canada-for-same-sex-non-residents-the-law-in-a-state-of-flux/
Dan Allen
@Ken: Duly noted and updated in the article, thanks for catching that.
rose40
Update: Last week, the portuguese Parliament aproved by majority, the law that permits the Co-Adoption by gay couples, becoming the 5th country in the world to do it. It still needs a second final voting and the aproval by the President, but half the work is done and all points to it.
teammm
The South African couple really moves me. They’re so beautiful.
Faggot
@DaveO: True. There are about 196 countries in the world (depending on how you count independent nations), yet only 14 allow same-sex marriage. Do the math QUEERTY and you’ll see that just over 7% of the world has gay marriage. The USA does not lag behind the rest of the world, it leads the rest of the world in this area. These 14 countries are, therefore, anomalies, and they are the ones who are leading with their progressive policies.
“The nations with full marriage equality tend to also be the most democratic and the most protective of minority rights, as well as boasting the lowest infant mortality rates and, yes, the richest citizenries per capita – by far.”
FYI, QUEERTY, this information does not apply to Argentina and Uruguay where they once had dictatorships for many years — and they are definitely not wealthy countries now, especially compared to the G-8 countries. One could say that Argentina and Uruguay are the most European nations outside of the European Union, or even that they are MORE European than the EU itself by having same-sex marriage! Now that France has (finally) made the list, there are only two G-8 countries where marriage equality exists (in addition to Canada), but in most of the European Union and in the six other G-8 countries (Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, USA), same-sex marriage is still not a reality. Therefore, you should not make a correlation between wealth and acceptance of gay marriage.